Let's Play Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank: interactive version! - Games

[b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 4 - Vietcong[/b] [img]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/8615/campaign047.png[/img] Oh shit. Looks like the VC have zeroed in some of our M110 howitzers with some counterbattery fire! There's no damage, but it's best to move them to a new firing position before they kill any of them. [img]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1026/campaign048.png[/img] Here's the little bastard. [img]http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5083/campaign049.png[/img] Interestingly enough this is the same gun used on the SU-76 which I hope many people know from World of Tanks. With the age of anti-tank guns (except for the Soviets) and direct-fire field artillery long past, they have been widely exported among Soviet allies after World War II as the D-30 and D-20 howitzers became the primary towed Soviet artillery until the late 1980s with the introduction of the 2A65 Msta-B. [editline]3rd February 2011[/editline] [b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 5 - US Army[/b] [img]http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2131/campaign050.png[/img] Kamikaze's M48s reverse and take up temporary overwatch positions. By now I'd expect enemy contact any time now, unless the enemy decided to send all of their forces into the forested area. The two-tank reserve section continues to follow behind 1st Platoon while it advances to capture the inaccessible hexes. [img]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9062/campaign051.png[/img] Back on the bridge, 1st Platoon's overwatch elements move to catch up with its parent unit, while I prepare put 2nd Platoon (E Platoon) into prebattle formation as a second-echelon force along with the company fire support section. [editline]3rd February 2011[/editline] [img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2442/campaign052.png[/img] The southern sector remains quiet.

Relocate the M48s on the hill back near the trees so they can oversee the other M48's advance into enemy territory.

I might join in on the next one depending on the scenario.

I do believe we have a unused squad, maybe you can drop in right now and use that.

[b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 5 - Vietcong[/b] [img]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3646/campaign053.png[/img] Our 8-inch guns bark some more and turn more of the unseen enemy into more craters. I think we've fired around a quarter of all the 8-inch shells used in the Vietnam War in this one battle. [img]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/3050/campaign054.png[/img] After scooting some of our artillery from the treeline VC guns manage to hit nothing at all. Actually in this game counterbattery is more deadly if both sides' guns are off-map assets. [img]http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3025/campaign055.png[/img] Contact! The lead advancing elements of a VC infantry force - blinded by our smoke - are engaged by our tanks and sustain a few casualties. I recommend keeping the tanks back while the infantry advance to combat. [editline]7th February 2011[/editline] [img]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/354/campaign056.png[/img] VC squads come in all shapes and sizes, but this infantry squad is mainly equipped with weapons captured from the French back during the 1956 war. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAT-49][b]MAT-49 submachine guns[/b][/url] and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_24/29_light_machine_gun][b]FM 24/29 light machine guns[/b][/url] were the workhorses of the postwar French Army until the arrival of the FAMAS in the late 1970s.

Pull back and give suppressing fire while the infantry can manage to catch up in the fray.

Sounds good. 1st platoon is to advance and capture the hexes. 3/4 of the platoon should act as over watch; send 1-2 squads forward to capture the hexes.

[b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 6 - US Army[/b] [img]http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2251/campaign057.png[/img] [img]http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5279/campaign058.png[/img] The forward M48 section lets loose with their full complement of 90mm HE and .30 cal machine gun fire on the spotted VC. The squad retreats, but we should expect more to come down the road or through the forested hill. [img]http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3484/campaign061.png[/img] 1st Platoon advances to capture the northern objective, with platoon support elements following some distance behind. [img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1584/campaign060.png[/img] As the battle finally starts I’m moving up the company fire support unit’s recoilless rifle jeeps to provide some extra fire support. We’re going to need the tanks to conduct breakthroughs and the hammers shouldn’t stay back all the time. I’m also committing the company reserve to capture the objective cluster just south of the main road. [img]http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6396/campaign059.png[/img] We’re inching closer and closer to the objective in the south. No contact yet. [editline]10th February 2011[/editline] [b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 6 - Vietcong[/b] [img]http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/7915/campaign062.png[/img] VC mortars drop some rounds in the area of the southern objective. Don’t know what they’re up to at this point. [img]http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9103/campaign064.png[/img] The VC ‘aint giving up yet! More hapless infantry run into our little fire sack and receive heavy fire. One squad is completely wiped out while a follow-on squad is forced to retreat off of our line of sight.

[b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 7 - US Army[/b] Right, back to this. So the tanks manage to finish off the remaining infantry elements visible to their LOS. They never stood a chance without any serious anti-tank weaponry. [img]http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2893/campaign065.png[/img] As 1st Platoon advances they come under fire from some more hidden VC. The volume of fire from two rifle squads flattens them which forces them to retreat. It’s going to take a few turns to deploy the platoon support elements due to their low mobility. The lack of motorized transport can suck for direct-fire weapons teams. Also to note that Vietnam War-era radio means that squads do have to stay close to their platoon leader sections, or else they run the risk of easily retreating under fire when not in direct command link contact. [img]http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1286/campaign067.png[/img] They sure love their WW2 weapons. Anyone ever played the 2003 FPS Vietcong? I loved using the Moist Nugget in that game, along with that American unscoped bolt-action rifle. [img]http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7019/campaign066.png[/img] To potentially free the tanks for maneuver I’m moving the company recoilless rifle jeeps to stiffen the tanks’ capability to provide direct-fire support. [img]http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/7852/campaign068.png[/img] [b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 7 - Vietcong[/b] No movement we can see, but we sure have their main lead elements pinned down. Just a reminder that we can drop this and switch to a new campaign with high-intensity combat like 1980s NATO vs Warsaw Pact or Israel vs. all her neighbors.

Does anyone else think doing this as a succession game would be fun?

That can work, sure. I'm open to anything.

I think a switch to a high-intensity campaign could be more fun, but at the same time, this battle is fairly entertaining in a different way. Up to you.

I feel so bad for forgetting about this thread. It just ends up behind the first pages that I don't even bother to look for it anymore. :v: Use the two tanks to help out the infantrymen capturing the points.

Sorry guys, I’ve been bogged down in a few exams this week with only a little time for scant posting. Now I can relax for the weekend. [b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 8 - US Army[/b] The M48 platoon section begins to move from their overwatch position to better support the advancing 1st Platoon. On the way tank L1 engages some VC and inflicts enough casualties with its HE ammo on a squad to force it to disperse - essentially taking it out of the battle. The recoilless rifle jeeps will replace the tanks in overwatch position. Actually in this era (1960s-1979) shaped charge weapons (ATGMs, RPGs and the like) are the best tank killers in the game, easily surpassing the most potent armor piercing tank gun rounds of the time period. [img]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6923/campaign069.png[/img] 1st Platoon’s forward elements join in the firing with its M16s, M79s and M60s. Before we can advance we gotta clear them out. [img]http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7785/campaign070.png[/img] ...and to help us out this is our artillery fire plan this turn. Is this enough 8-inch artillery love? [img]http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4268/campaign071.png[/img] [b]Good Morning Vietnam - Turn 8 - Vietcong[/b] VC howitzers bark once again...and manage to land tiny shell splinters on our tanks. Artillery is pretty useless for damaging enemy armor until cluster artillery shells come into service in the 1980s. I once killed an entire company of mighty M1A2s with a few DPICM barrages from a single battery of 155mm Chinese howitzers in a 2010 scenario. It gets worse if an enemy launches [i]rocket cluster munitions[/i] against you, and the Soviets love rocket artillery. [img]http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/6912/campaign072.png[/img] Good news. One of our M110s managed to kill two enemy artillerymen. [img]http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1161/campaign074.png[/img] In other news, I think a cocurrent or replacement succession LP could be very possible and may be much faster (and more enjoyable) than what I’m doing right now. Any other thoughts? I suggest doing something high-intensity/mechanized though.

good turn! I think if you want to get a lot more out of this, you have to cut the maps down to probably half their current size so prep and pre-combat could be in one or two turns instead of it taking so long to actually see combat. The scale/amount of units, I don't think, would make much of a difference so long as there's always something going on. the current pace and format is good but I think it's just the map scale that's dictating how long it's going to take to actually finish the battle.

[QUOTE=69105;28274331]good turn! I think if you want to get a lot more out of this, you have to cut the maps down to probably half their current size so prep and pre-combat could be in one or two turns instead of it taking so long to actually see combat. The scale/amount of units, I don't think, would make much of a difference so long as there's always something going on. the current pace and format is good but I think it's just the map scale that's dictating how long it's going to take to actually finish the battle.[/QUOTE] Yeah, this map size is great for Fulda Gap or Golan Height battles, but it's too big for Vietnam jungle fighting. For randomly generated campaigns, the game system only allows you to choose just one map size for all campaign missions.

Guys, at the rate we’re doing this it’ll take two years to do the entire campaign. I propose that we abandon this and go with the succession game idea. This way each player can have a more active role in the LP (and more control over his units) instead of just calling out orders for the game master. Here are the eras that I recommend right off the bat: 1980s NATO vs Warsaw Pact 1960s-1970s Israel vs Arab nations 1980s South Africa vs Angola

Yeah, I agree. This thread's going too slow as is. I'd think a NATO vs Warsaw pact scenario could potentially be the best choice.

agreed.

Alright. We’ve got a lot of country choices for an ‘80s conflict. I also suggest 1984-1987 since that’s the sweet spot after ATGMs killing everything and before Gorbachev gaps show up. Here’s the rundown on some of the ones we can play as: [b]US[/b]: You’ve got the best, but most expensive tanks in the era. Bradley-equipped mech infantry units are pretty good and your ATGM units are capable of stopping all but the best Soviet tanks. Air support including helicopters is effective and precise. The high cost of basically everything will mean that we’ll be outnumbered basically everytime and a reenactment of Zulu isn’t guaranteed. [b]USSR[/b]: Even your best tanks are pretty cheap when compared to the American Abrams. Your forces as a whole have a higher tolerance for casualties and your motor rifle troops can lay down some serious firepower against the enemy. Your biggest advantage is all the cheap artillery including rockets at your disposal. Air support is less precise due to the lower-skilled forward air controllers but it’s still good. Your attack helicopters are more like flying artillery or anti-tank - not so much multipurpose in a single mission like Apaches. You also get access to lots of AAA too. [b]West Germany[/b]: Nice selection of Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks that have a more reasonable cost than M1s. (M1A1 platoon costs 1712 points compared to a Leopard 2A4 platoon of 1500 points). The Leopard 2s have less side protection and their ammonition is a little worse than the US, but you get some of the most mobile MBTs of the 1980s. German conscripts are pretty hardy and don’t cost as much as Americans. Air support falls in between the US and USSR. [b]United Kingdom[/b]: You’ve got some of the better protected tanks. However your mobility sucks and your fire control systems are marginally improved over your older tanks. The infantry is pretty good with their L85 rifles and you can buy ready-made combat teams which are combined arms company units of tanks and mech infantry. Artillery and air support similar to the US. [b]Czechoslovakia[/b]: Even your best tanks may struggle individually, but a tank company of T-72s costs less than half of a West German Leo 2A4 company. Use your superior numbers smartly combined with other arms and they can do all right. As a Warsaw Pact member you get lots of cheap artillery. Air support doesn’t have much in the way of PGMs but you can use it to deliver massed fires with rockets.